Abstract
Research on China’s media engagement in Africa has largely followed its very evolution from providing media hardware, to media exchanges as well as setting-up media bureaus on the continent. Particular emphasis has been given to the last aspect on Chinese media houses in Africa as content providers, as means to serve broader statecraft. This chapter seeks to understand the role that Chinese media engagement plays in South Africa and whether this helps expand its influence. It moves beyond earlier approaches by also focusing on China’s involvement in media business, rather than exclusively focusing on media as a vector for messaging. South Africa is a useful case in this regard, especially as the media environment is already relatively competitive, vocal and diversified. It appears difficult for new entrants like China to penetrate such a market. For this reason China’s commercial media role deserves more attention in that it is both unique and complicating relations in new ways. Chinese corporate engagement in the media sector in South Africa also suggest trends that will become visible in Chinese media engagement in the rest of Africa as well.
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Wu, YS., van Staden, C. (2021). Behind the Headlines: China’s Media Engagement in South Africa. In: Alden, C., Wu, YS. (eds) South Africa–China Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54768-4_7
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