ABSTRACT
The post-apartheid media landscape in South Africa provides an interesting example of the multiple and even paradoxical sets of power relations in which media industries in countries outside the global metropolises may be involved. In comparison with the global power houses of the United States and Britain, South Africa appears to be on the receiving end of cultural products carried by globalizing media. The country’s channels are awash with news and entertainment produced elsewhere; newspaper and magazine columns are filled with information provided by international agencies ranging from news reports to entertainment gossip; local films struggle to find a space in a cinema circuit dominated by Hollywood products. As far as ownership is concerned, the influence of international media companies can also be felt, as in the case of Tony O’Reilly’s multinational group, Independent Newspapers, which acquired a range of prominent print media titles soon after democratization in 1994 (Tomaselli, 2000:284).
