While ABSA and Telkom generated continuous coverage throughout the year, Harmony 'benefited' from increased coverage in the last quarter of 2004 mostly attributed to its hostile bid for Gold Fields, which in turn ranked sixth overall. Mining giant AngloAmerican came fourth with Standard Bank taking fifth position, Old Mutual seventh, and Nedcor, Sasol and MTN in position eight to ten. Amongst the top 10, ABSA, Standard Bank and MTN generated proportionally the most positive coverage.
For the first time in five years, black CEO's topped the list of most quoted managers in leading SA media. Head to head were Patrice Motsepe and Tokyo Sexwale, followed by Cyril Ramaphosa. Following in fourth position, the only woman, Maria Ramos of Transnet, was quoted 315 times, followed by Saki Makozoma. Tom Boardman of Nedcor received 181 quotes followed by Sizwe Nxasana of Telkom, Peter Matlare of the SABC, former CEO of SAA Andre Viljoen and Brett Kebble (at 10th position). According to Wadim Schreiner, Managing Director of Media Tenor, this trend clearly shows that Black Economic Empowerment companies are increasingly utilising the editorial space of the media to communicate messages to its stakeholders, a 'domain' previously occupied by white managers.
Not surprisingly, President Thabo Mbeki emerged as the most quoted - by far, politician in leading South African media (9739 qoutes). Deputy President Jacob Zuma took second place (2481), followed by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Opposition leader Tony Leon ranked fifth, Mangosothu Buthelezi seventh and ID leader Patricia de Lille on position nine.
Amongst the non-South African politicians/personalities, US President George W Bush emerged the clear winner with 4176 quotes, followed by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Contrary to Media Tenor's research of European media, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was allocated a considerable voice in South African media.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang emerged as the most quoted woman in leading SA media in 2004, followed by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and ID leader Patricia de Lille.
In its international coverage, South African media focused largely on the United States due to the elections and the war in Iraq. Also due to the war, but probably also largely because of historical ties between the media organisations, the United Kingdom was the second most reported country, followed by Iraq. For the first time in three years, Zimbabwe was not amongst the top three reported on countries in leading South African media. Instead, South African media seem to have recognised the growing economic importance of China for South Africa, which, with a total of 1 874 reports/articles occupied fourth position. The genocide in Sudan lead to a large focus of coverage (1310 reports/articles). For the first time, Germany was not amongst the top ten reported on countries; instead France emerged as the second European country, at tenth position. Particularly positive was the coverage on Australia (8th by volume).
Although the analysed media did not include Cape newspapers, Cape Town emerged third after Johannesburg and Pretoria in volume, but came out a clear winner in terms of positive coverage received. In fact, only the Mother City and Bloemfontein (with considerable less coverage) managed to draw more positive than negative coverage in the analysed set of media. Johannesburg's image in the mostly Gauteng media was not as negative compared to previous years - an aspect also underlined when the decline in crime related coverage is considered. The capital of the Western Province not only excelled in the ranking of cities, but the province in terms of provincial coverage, did as well. This is particularly impressive considering that the provincial papers did not form part of the analysed sample. Second to Gauteng in volume the Western Province emerged the only province with more positive than negative coverage and was able to narrowly beat KwaZulu Natal, which followed in third place, in volume. The Northern Cape received virtually no coverage in the analysed media.
For the fifth time in a row, Carte Blanche emerged as the most quoted medium source by other media, ahead of SABC's Special Assignment (a distant second). Although South African media avoid referring to other publications as a source of information (instead preferring to call it for instance 'leading Sunday Paper), the SABC emerged as an increased source for other publications. Amongst the newspapers, The Star was the most referred to daily paper, followed by Sowetan and online publication Moneyweb. The Sunday Times was the most quoted Sunday paper and was narrowly followed by the Mail & Guardian and the City Press respectively.
South African media seemed to be less hesitant to refer to international media as a point of reference, and Reuters emerged as a clear winner in 2004. The New York Times was the most quoted international newspaper, followed by the British Financial Mail. Doha-based Al Jazeera was increasingly referred to by South African media (position 8) while the impact of CNN as a source declined (position 13).
For more information, as well as supporting graphical documentation, please visit our website at http://www.mediatenor.co.za.
The following media were analysed in 2004: The Star, Business Report, Beeld, Sake, Business Day, Citizen, Sowetan, Pretoria News, The SundayTimes, Sunday Independent, City Press, Rapport, Mail & Guardian, Sunday World, Sunday Sun, Financial Mail, Finance Week, SABC news in Afrikaans, English, Zulu/Xhosa, Sotho, e-news, Business tonight.
