COM 2007 Volume 12

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Die stand van die Afrikaanse koerant in Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskappe
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2007) Diederichs, P. D.
The Afrikaans newspaper has a rich history of struggle and involvement in its niche reader market, the Afrikaans-speaking population. New challenges face this market in an ever-changing technological and social-political environment. Backed by the biggest media company in Africa, Naspers, Afrikaans newspapers have the economic resources to survive in a competitive multilingual environment. The question is whether the product will meet the needs of a growing discerning media audience that will not necessarily purchase news offered in a specific language or in a specific medium. The study on which this article is based, looked at various trends in modern news media ranging from content to the delivery format. The McQuail (2004) methodological approach of studying mass communication processes through a “social action perspective”, as well as the gratification model, were used to highlight the importance of target group variables and the interaction between product and consumer. It was found that the news industry is in a transition phase globally of traditional versus convergence media, and that the Afrikaans newspaper editors and proprietors are acutely aware of this fact.