"This article challenges the traditional role ascribed by liberal and developmental media theory that journalists should either be watchdogs or developmental journalists but not both at the same time. As part of the South African leg of the Worlds of Journalism (WJS) project this article argues that ... it is indeed possible that the media can fulfil both roles. Utilizing the WJS 2014 questionnaire and based on a provincial face-to-face (n=37) and a national electronic survey (n=371) the results from the WJS South African project show a potential new trend in the way South African journalists see their role. This article reports in the main on the background to the face-to-face survey, while utilizing data from the national survey reported on elsewhere. Data analysis showed when both roles were compared to one another it was apparent that the watchdog and developmental roles were statistically significantly related to one another." (Abstract) more

"With regard to professional role orientations, South African journalists found it most important to report things as they are (92.5%), to educate the audience (86.8%), and to let people express their views (84.6%). The relevance of these roles was fairly undisputed among the interviewed journalists ... as the relatively low standard deviations indicate. A majority of journalists in South Africa found it important to provide analysis of current affairs, to promote tolerance and cultural diversity, to tell stories about the world and to be detached observers. In this process, the majority of the journalists supported the idea of watchdog-journalism, namely to monitor and scrutinize political leaders, as well as to monitor and scrutinize business. In a world awash in media entertainment, less than half of the journalists (43.6%) thought providing entertainment and relaxation were part of their work. On the whole, the impression was gained that the journalists took their work seriously, however they did not think that they should support government policy (9.6%) or convey a positive image of political leadership (9.0%). On the other hand, only less than a third (29.6%) thought they should motivate people to participate in political activity, and less than 20 percent thought that they should set the political agenda (17.4%) or be an adversary of government (13.3%)." (Journalistic roles, page 2) more