Abstract:
This article attempts to understand how different print cultures that service different
language communities fuel nationalisms that are not co-terminus with a nation-state. In
the tradition of scholars like Benedict Anderson, it examines the connections between
nationalism and print culture, but with reference to a single important event: violence at
the Marikana mine. These events constituted the largest act of lethal force against
civilians in the post-apartheid era. The South African press in all three languages -
Afrikaans, isiZulu, and English – covered the violence that erupted at the Lonmin mine in
Marikana in mid-August 2012. Using original translations of daily newspapers and
quantitative content analysis, the article assesses the differences among the various
language media outlets covering the event. It finds that news coverage varied
significantly according to the language medium in three ways: attribution of action,
portrayal of sympathy and blame, and inclusion of political and economic coverage in the
aftermath of the violence. These variations in coverage coincided with differences
between reading publics divided by race, class, and location. The article argues that the
English-language bias of most media analysis misses key points of contestation that occur
in different media, both within South Africa, and throughout the post-colonial world.
