Department of Information Science

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Browsing Department of Information Science by browse.metadata.advisor "Claassen, George"

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    A comparative analysis of the coverage of the South African electrical energy crisis during the period 2005-2010 by Cape Town newspapers
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) Holtzhausen, Jacobus Petrus; Claassen, George; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Electrical energy has become an indispensable part of the modern world, supporting industries and economic systems. Any disruption of supply is felt immediately in all spheres of life. The operation of a power system is a complex process involving rotating machines that may fail from time even though they are maintained regularly. The overhead transmission system is likewise prone to faults caused by environmental factors such as pollution and lightning. Power authorities therefore operate their systems in such a way that they have sufficient reserve capacity available to allow for contingencies. In the last decade of the previous century a condition developed, for various reasons, that the reserve margin was too small in the South African electricity supply system. At the end of 2005, a spate of failures occurred at Koeberg power station and later in 2007 serious coal supply problems developed at the large power stations in Mpumalanga, aggravating the situation. This research project focuses on the complexity of the task of the reporter when reporting on occurrences such as these. It is required to convey the factual situation to the readers, avoiding alarmism and sensationalism. At the same time the reporter also has a role to play in educating the readers. It was a difficult task, seeing that the reporters were not necessary versed in the technical field. They therefore had to rely on Eskom’s spokespersons. In this project newspaper clippings of various Western Cape newspapers containing the word Eskom were analysed. The method of analysis was content analysis. Firstly the quantitative content analysis was used to obtain distribution of articles over the period and among newspapers. Thereafter the topics covered and the types of article were obtained for the various newspapers and years. Next articles for 2006 and 2008 were investigated using qualitative content analysis. Certain attributes in the articles were detected manually and a profile was obtained for each newspaper for each year period. Questionnaires were sent to reporters responsible for some of the articles and to a technical expert who was consulted regularly by the news reporters. It was found that the number of articles and style of presentation vary among the newspapers. There is evidence of framing of Eskom as incompetent.