Abstract:
Amid ongoing concerns about the reading decline, the lack of a “reading culture” and
children not reading enough, a variety of solutions are put forward, largely in the form of
reading promotion campaigns. These campaigns are seldom sustainable, usually owing
to sporadic funding. However, this paper considers whether another factor that affects the
sustainability of such campaigns has to do with how they are conceptualised, and whether
it is a mismatch between aims and outcomes. Working from a theoretical perspective of the
social uses of literacy, the paper examines discourses around reading and how they reflect
certain dominant ideologies, social meanings and values. Based on a content analysis of the
main publicity, communications and speeches associated with some of the dominant reading
promotion campaigns in South Africa, the paper examines the words and images being used
to promote reading, and how these affect the evaluation of such reading campaigns.
