ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how ordinary citizens access the news media, how often they do so, and how much of the media they have access to. It examines media access and diversity across a selected sample of geographical regions, taking a look at one metropolitan area, one medium sized city/large town and one small town, for consistency. Many participants complained that the stores in the locations/townships where they lived did not sell newspapers, and this meant that they either had to walk a long distance into the main town or would have to catch a taxi into town to buy a newspaper. The participants in the urban metropole of Pretoria were not as constrained by price in terms of accessing newspapers as those in the rural and semi-urban areas. Many of the participants, particularly those from the rural and semi-urban focus groups, were critical of the fact that their specific communities are not visible or are misrepresented in the news.
