The Role of the Tabloid, Daily Sun in South Africa

This work investigates the role of the tabloid newspaper, Daily Sun, in contemporary South Africa by exploring the meanings that readers of the newspaper appropriate through their engagement with it and the uses to which they put these meanings. This audience-based study is informed by theories that relate to: * Revised conceptions of the public sphere * The potential uses of the media in development contexts * Debates over the tabloidization of the press. Qualitative data, collected through focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews conducted with township dwellers, workers and the unemployed with low English proficiency, reveals that the Daily Sun plays a positive role in the lives of its readers and that this role can best be understood through a combination of perspectives that incorporate the concept of multiple public spheres, culture as development and a revision of the traditional tabloid debate.