The rise of political advertising on television in South Africa and its implications for democracy.

The general debate around political advertising on television has been that the political \nadvertisements on television concentrate more on the images rather than the political issues and thus, \ncreate an electorate who is entertained by the catchy slogans and this hinders a well informed \ndecision. The study investigates the rise of political advertising on television in South Africa and its \nimplications for democracy. It is focused on the 2009 pre-elections and specifically on the political \nadvertisements which appeared on national television during the pre-election period beginning from \n30th March 2009 up until 20th April 2009. The study also examines the extent to which political \nadvertisements on television commodify politics. Furthermore, it explores the themes covered in the \npolitical advertisements on television and the extent to which these political advertisements focus on \nthe images than the themes. In addition, the study also looks into the underlying issues and \ncomplexities, such as regulation and funding and financing issues which are hidden from the public \nglare, accompanying the images and messages seen on television around election time. Qualitative \nmethods are used and the study is both descriptive and explorative and as means of interpreting the \ndata, thematic content analysis is used. The critical political economy of the media theory is employed \nas well as the democratic theories of the media, with a key focus on liberal democracy and \ndeliberative democracy. Thus the findings showed that the political advertisements on television in \nSouth Africa were informative as they concentrated more on the themes than the images and, in many \ninstances where the images were used it was mainly to support the message. However, the political \nadvertisements had some emotional appeals which communicated emotions of sadness and despair as \nwell as emotions of happiness and success. Character appeals were used at minimum and it was only \nthree political parties which made use of their leaders with only one political party, out of the three, \nusing their leader throughout the advertisement. The issue of commodity in politics was very \nprominent in the political advertisements on television thus it can be concluded that political \nadvertising on television commodify politics to a large extent in the production and distribution \nprocess but to a minimum extent in the content. The implications of the rise of political advertising on \ntelevision for democracy are twofold because they are both positive and negative. It is recommended \nthat the regulations on political advertising on television be re-visited and reviewed. Thus, a \nprospective model for the regulation of political advertising on television is also illustrated in the \nstudy.