Com4804

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I,

Sindisiwe Kubeka

hereby declare

X This assignment contains my own, original ideas and work; X Those ideas or work that are not my own have been cited through the prescribed referencing system: X I have not submitted the ideas or work contained in this assignment for any other work or tertiary education credit (e.g. an assignment for any other lecturer or module) X I have read and understood the sections regarding referencing techniques and plagiarism in Tutorial Letter CMNHONE/301. X I am aware that plagiarism is punishable in terms of the Copyright Act (Act 98 of1978) and that I have read the regulations of the University of South Africa in this respect available on line: http://cm.unisa.ac.za/contents/departments/tuition_policies/docs/copyrightinfringment_an d)plagiarism_policy_16nov05.pdf Sindisiwe Kubeka / S.Kubeka Signature/ Name S.P Kubeka / Pauline Kubeka Witness signature/name 14 May 2014 Date 14 April 2014 Date

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1 INTRODUCTION 2 POLITICAL COMMUNICATION, PUBLIC SPHERE AND DEMOCRACY 3 DEMOCRACY 4 DEMOCRACY AND THE MEDIA 5 THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE INTERNET 6 CONCLUSION LIST OF SOURCES ADDENDUM A: SELF-ASSESSMENT AND SELF-REFLECTION

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INTRODUCTION

The essay is aimed at analysing democracy in South Africa, whether or not South Africa is a democratic country. The essay will also discuss the importance of the internet and the public sphere in South Africa. 2 POLITICAL COMMUNICATION, PUBLIC SPHERE AND DEMOCRACY

McNair (2007:4) defines political communication as “all forms communication undertaken by politicians and other political actors for the purpose of achieving specific objectives”. This includes communication that is addressed to politicians and other political actors by non-politicians such as voters and newspaper columnists. Activities of politicians and other political actors such as those contained in news reports, editorials and other forms of media discussion...