The South African media finds itself in a contested media space on
the African continent, where various global media players are competing
for attention, each aiming to use its media as platforms for the
exercise of soft power in a strategic region. At the same time, as South
Africa is looking north to expand its media beyond its borders, its
BRICS partner China has broadened its influence in the region by
establishing regional bureaux for its media on the continent and providing
media assistance in a number of countries. While these BRICS countries
strive to gain new ground, the media from former metropolitan centres
such as the BBC World Service, Radio France International, Deutsche
Welle and Voice of America continue to exert their influence on the
continent. Other African countries have also entered the fray, for
instance Nigeria which has established a new 24-hour news channel. This
paper will provide an overview of these developments and evaluate their
attempts at exerting soft power through the media, with a focus on South
Africa’s position within this contested landscape. An
evaluation of whether South African transnational media can still become
one of the contending soft powers in the fast transforming
post-colonial African and globalized media spheres requires a detailed
articulation of the history of the relationship between South Africa
itself and the ‘rest’ of the African continent. This is because the
South African media industry’s soft power on the African continent, as a
one of the micro components of the country’s soft power, is
(re)configured by the sum totality of macro soft power that is “Brand
South Africa” in Africa. This paper aims to present the broader context
by looking at the South Africa-Africa relationship with regards to the
historical-political, economic, cultural and person-to-person aspects.
After these aspects are dealt with, the chapter considers whether South
African media can contribute to the country’s soft power on the
continent, in the light of the ongoing transformation of Africa’s media
sphere by a range of other players.