This book takes television news seriously. Over the course of nine chapters, Elections and TV News in South Africa shows how six democratic South African general elections, 1994–2019, were represented on both local and international news broadcasts. It reveals the shifting narratives about South African democracy, coupled with changing and challenging political journalism practices. The book is organised in three parts: the first contains a history of South African democracy and an overview of the South African media environment. The second part is a visual analysis of the South African elections on television news, exploring portrayals of violence, security, power, and populism, and how these fit into normative news values and the ruling party’s tightening grip on the media. The final part is a conclusion, a call to action, and a suggestion to improve political journalistic practice.

Consists of reproductions of articles from South African newspapers.

The book?s collection of research and analyses aims to close a substantial gap in systematic analyses of local politics, elections and government in South Africa. This book?s 20 authors represent the perspectives of many of South Africa?s most accomplished scholars. The collective project sheds valuable light on ?the local, the heart of politics in South Africa?.

The Handbook of Election Coverage Around the World focuses on the news coverage of national elections in democracies around the globe. It brings together and compares election news coverage within a single framework, offering a systematic consideration of various factors. Considering the prominence and power of the press in the election process, this volume will offer unique breadth in its global consideration of the topic. The volume will appeal to scholars in political communication, political science, mass media and society, and others studying elections and media coverage around the world.

This book contributes to debates concerning online reporting of elections and the challenges facing journalism in the context of democratic change. The speed of technological adaptation by journalists and their audiences means online news is gradually becoming a normalised part of media landscapes across the world. Journalists monitor social media for insight into the political process and as an instant indication of "public sentiment", rather than waiting for press releases and opinion polls. Citizens are actively participating in online political reporting too, through publishing eyewitness accounts, political commentary, crowd-sourcing and fact-checking information (of political manifestos and media reports alike). It is therefore growing increasingly important to understand how political journalism is evolving through new communicative forms and practices, in order to critique its epistemological role and function in democratic societies, and examine how these interventions influence daily online political reporting across different national contexts. This volume covers comparative, research-based studies across a range of national contexts and electoral systems, including Australia, ten African countries, the European Union, Greece, the Netherlands, India, Iran, Sweden, the UK and the USA. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.

Why do some countries hold elections that meet global democratic standards, while other countries do not? Electoral Commissions and Democratization in Africa makes a novel contribution to this question. In a departure from the typical story about the “boring” administrative tasks that electoral commissions carry out and their impact on international observers' assessments of election quality, Kerr aruges that electoral commissions provide valuable information that helps politicians and citizens resolve uncertainties about electoral fraud and administrative irregularities. Whereas previous research focuses on the institutional design of electoral commissions, this book privileges their actual performance and focuses on two attributes: autonomy and capacity. By serving an informational role, the autonomy and capacity of electoral commissions influences how citizens and elites think about and behave during elections. This includes whether political elites and citizens participate in elections, engage in electoral fraud and violence, accept electoral outcomes, and express confidence in elections. These attitudes and behaviors, in turn, influence whether elections meet democratic standards (election quality) and whether political elites and citizens regard election processes as acceptable (election legitimacy). This book brings together evidence from public opinion surveys, elite surveys, field research, and cross-national databases to give an unusually rich empirical exploration of the dynamics of elections and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s, with a focused case study of Nigeria. Electoral Commissions and Democratization in Africa will be appealing to scholars and policymakers interested in democratization and elections. Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinary research and work that considers ethical issues relating to the study of Africa. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics, University of Bristol; and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford.

For the interaction of society and political parties within the electoral system in southern Africa, it is necessary to systematically investigate the social structures (cleavage analysis) and measure the success or failure of political parties against the backdrop of the election programmes (manifesto research). The focus of this research is the six polyarchies of Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa. In countries with the voting system of proportional representation, neither coalition governments nor alternative government parties have ruled since 1990. In countries with a majoritarian voting system, either coalitions have formed a government, or one party has remained unchallenged for decades. The research results show that the previous electoral outcomes are the reflection of the cleavage structure, and there are indicators in the societies examined that can meet the theoretical expectations of democratic societies in the future. In part I, the theoretical framework for the cleavage analysis and party analysis is established, which applies for the six case studies of part II. The societies are examined in terms of eight cleavages, their extension and their political relevance. The cleavages are related to the settlement area, the occupation, the income distribution, the religion, the ethnicity (race), the language heritage, the educational level and citizenship (the proportion of foreigners). In the context of the electoral system, political parties represent the social interest. Their goals are recorded as contents of the manifesto, which can be used for Wordscores to compare the political parties on the policy domains Freedom and democracy, Political system, Economy, Welfare and quality of life, Fabric of Society and Social Groups. Each domain is described by two contrasting definitions, which are used for aggregating Left-Right categorisation of the parties. The regional results in the comparative study (part III) define the categories Left, Right and Liberal of political parties. The qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to define the content of the left-wing, right-wing and liberal political parties in the context of Southern Africa. At the same time, the contents of the definitions are factors in the success of parties in Southern Africa. Parties with right-wing content are found mainly among the government parties, and parties with politically left-wing or liberal content are mainly opposition parties.

A Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Elections in Commonwealth Africa: Achieving 50:50 by 2030 reviews the systems, legislation and best practice that will need to be implemented and effectively monitored to get more women into politics and help to realise Sustainable Development Goal 5 – achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.