Daily Sun: Is it the paper for the people or the humiliation of the people?
The fact that Daily Sun is the biggest daily newspaper in South Africa should, obviously, indicate that many people can access the newspaper. It appears true that the news stories this paper focuses on are popular with, especially, black, township and rural readers. Therefore, it cannot come as a surprise that the newspaper is very popular in Gauteng, Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga and Northwest Province with well over 500 000 sales in these places. This seems to correspond with what the paper set out to achieve in its inception. The newspaper’s initial target readership was and is in and around the major urban centres of South Africa. The readers are ‘predominately black, English literate with a minimum high school education, working class earners – the economic core of South Africa’. The newspaper should be given higher marks for being able to do proper research of its market and indeed provide news stories that will entertain its market in the process making business out of it.
However, I want to take into issue the stories this newspaper focuses on. Furthermore, I am perturbed by the type of English the paper prefers for its readers. First, the stories this newspaper prefers for its readers are too melodramatic to believe. These stories include issues of witchcraft, Tokoloshes (evil spirits) and tedious stories about animal as well as awkward people stories. I think there is a pandering of superstition in the interest of selling the newspaper. The paper - knowing that black people still strongly believe in superstitions and would like to read news of this sort - have dedicated its energy on reporting on these ridiculous, pathetic stories.
This type of reporting puts black people in a negative light. The obsession of this paper with superstitious stories, to me, is lazy journalism and it is purposefully perpetrated by the management of Daily Sun who will stop at nothing to...